India began their preparation for the long Test season ahead on Friday as the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai hosted the first training session for the team ahead. Former captain Virat Kohli, who arrived early that morning from London, batted for 45 minutes long, while Rishabh Pant looked set to resume his Test career from where he left it two years back. And overseeing the entire proceeding at the Chepauk was head coach Gautam Gambhir, who was joined by new bowling coach Morne Morkel.
The Indian team, last seen in action in the opening week of August, assembled in Chennai for a training camp in preparation for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh, which begins next week at the same venue. It will also be India’s first Test series since beating England 4-1 at home earlier in March this year.
The training session, which began with captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli facing selected bowlers, comprised batting in two separate nets. One had black soil, allotted to face the spinners, and gear up for Bangladesh’s familiar threat. India did have their fair share of net bowlers – left-arm spinners in Tamil Nadu’s S Ajith Ram, M Siddharth and P Vignesh and offies in Tamil Nadu’s Lakshay Jain and Mumbai’s Himanshu Singh. The other net had red-soil content, where Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj lined-up.
Chennai to put Bangladesh at a disadvantage
Despite India preparing themselves for both conditions, a report in Indian Express revealed that Chennai is likely to roll out a pitch with red-soil content, thus putting the visitors, who predominantly play on black soil back at home, at a disadvantage. In fact, the centre pitch, which was covered by the groundstaff late on Friday morning, had a good grass cover.
Notably, India have favoured fast-bowling conditions at home over the last few years in a bid to prepare for overseas tours. Back in 2019, when Bangladesh last visited India for a Test series, India had rolled out similar conditions. India’s line-up for the two matches comprised three fast bowlers, who picked 33 wickets, and two spinners, where Ashwin picked five wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja, who bowled for only 19 overs across four innings, went wicketless.
India adopted the strategy to prepare for the Australia tour the following month, and the tactic is largely likely to remain the same with Rohit and Gambhir having their main focus on the Border-Gavaskar series Down Under in December.